Shadows are gathering across the face of Europe once again. The European Union was built in the aftermath of the Holocaust and the Second World War partly to avoid a repetition of past tragedies. Exemplified by Brexit, today Europe is beset by disintegrative forces mostly powered by and manifested in the rise of reactionary nationalist movements in virtually every European nation. In many cases this is manifest as the return of the repressed of different unaddressed historical dramas. Antisemitism, kept under the carpet for a long time, is again more openly manifested and spreading. Paranoid ancient memories of the Ottoman menace fueled Serbian nationalism in the early 1990s just as centuries of invasions and annexations spark off Polish nationalism today. Even in Germany openly nationalist discourses have become normalized and the far right was elected to the Bundestag in 2017 for the first time since the 1920s. On the other hand strong regional identities threaten to break-up the richest and more advanced parts of nation states such in Spain and Italy.

De-industrialisation, attending globalization and modernization created a ‘left behind’, largely white and indigenous social layer. Mass migration from the war torn Middle East and impoverished Africa stretched the social fabric of several EU member nations to breaking point or created paranoid fantasies of ‘invasion’ in others.

The roots of the financial crisis of 2008 remain unresolved and this is generating continued tension between the strong EU core and the austerity ridden Mediterranean periphery.

The digital revolution enhances these processes through extremely fast information transmission and exchanges and a very bare content communication. A consequence is also a wide generational gap among IT users.

Old paradigms for understanding society are being challenged by such phenomena and the violence of terrorist attacks, many citizens experience a continuous state of anxiety regarding personal safety, national security and control of borders. Feelings of exclusion and inclusion, paranoia and mistrust dominate the personal and collective psyche, identity and culture. Resentments fuel these developments.

About PCCA:
Partners in Confronting Collective Atrocities (PCCA) was founded in 2007 after the first Israeli-German the past in the present Conferences, the so called “Nazareth” series.

PCCA works towards developing strategies to engage with the legacy of past atrocities that can contribute to opening up the possibility of a more hopeful future. The aim of the organization is to work through the effects of the Holocaust and of past and present national and international conflicts that lead to destructive escalation, in the service of a better understanding among national groups worldwide.

To provide a space for participants to explore how feelings of inclusion and exclusion fuel resentment. How the return of the repressed influences personal and cultural identities and relations within and between individuals and groups in the Conference and how this in turn illuminates wider cultural and political processes in Europe in a globalized world. Through the awareness of such dynamics to enable political and social action and a more active and responsible citizenship.

•What projections and misunderstandings undermine European cohesion?
•What are the unconscious fantasies behind the new nationalist longings?
•How do the traumas of the past disrupt relations in the present?
•How are our identities and internal worlds affected?

These are the kind of questions that this PCCA Conference seeks to address. PCCA has a long standing tradition in applying Group Relations methods to study societal issues - German and Israeli, Palestinians, West and East Europeans and others globally. This Conference is to be a continuation of this stream.

This residential Conference aims to create a space to explore the unconscious processes generated by resentments, fears, traumas and longings of the present, and the past in the present. By drawing staff and participants from different national backgrounds we will be able to reality check our projections and defenses and learn from others’ experience in their presence. Away from the pressures of everyday life the Conference provides a safe setting for such learning opportunities to emerge. It is also an opportunity to discover whether genuine movement in the real, lived experience of the relationships between members of different national groups is possible.

These Conferences are experiential events. Inner thoughts, feelings and fantasies about oneself as a participant and as a member of one (or more) of the groups within the Conference are the raw materials that every individual brings to the work of the Conference. The Conference provides a setting in which these can be experienced, explored and worked with, in oneself, within groups, between groups and within the Conference as a whole. Much of this work is carried out in the here and now.

Application of Conference experience to members’ personal, professional, political and social context is an important part of the learning.

The work of the Conference is done in groups. Most groups will have one or more consultants, whose role is not to lead the group, but to support the group’s working on the Primary Task with consultation. Consultants do so by focusing on the dynamics and the work of the group as a whole rather than on the individuals within it. There is no teaching of the conventional kind, and what each individual participant learns cannot be predicted in advance, as it depends on the extent and nature of the individual’s participation in the ongoing process.

We invite people from the nations of Europe and elsewhere - from all walks of life and all ages - who in different roles and professions want to understand and learn about what is going on at a personal, social and political level, not only in terms of what is immediately manifest above the surface, but also beneath the surface manifest in the re-enactment of historical traumas, affects and fantasies.

Furthermore we believe that this type of experiential learning can be an important means for the taking of political and social action and a more active and responsible role as citizen.

No previous experience of this kind of Conference is necessary except the wish to learn from one’s experience of membership and to participate in the events of the conference.

The staff are not merely observers of the process, but have an active involvement in it. The key part of the role of the staff is to help participants to think about what is going on, learn from it and apply it to their profession, in their organization and in general to society.

The Conference starts on Thursday 30th August 2018 at 1.00 pm (at 12.00 pm registration and lunch) and ends on Monday 3rd September at 1.30 (followed by lunch).

The program and the timetable of the events will be available at the beginning of the conference. It will comprise Plenaries, Small Study Groups, Large Study Groups, Social Dreaming Matrix and a European Event.

Additional events or modifications of the above events may take place, depending on the Conference composition and dynamics.

Staff

DirectorLouisa Diana Brunner PhDlives and works in Milano (Italy) as a Leadership Consultant, Executive Coach, Family Business Advisor. She has served in different staff roles in Group Relations Conferences in Cyprus, England, Israel, Italy, Poland, USA and the Netherlands. She is a founding member of PCCA, an honorary member of Il Nodo Group, a Fellow of the Family Firm Institute. She is a member of ISPSO, OFEK and OPUS. She has published and presented extensively at international conferences.

Associate Director:Paul Hoggettis a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at UWE, Bristol where he helped create the Centre for Psycho-Social Studies. He is an OPUS Fellow and was one of the founding Co-editors of Organisational and Social Dynamics. He currently Chairs the Climate Psychology Alliance. His last book was Politics, Identity and Emotion (Continuum, 2009).

Administrator:Martijn van der SpekDutch, living in The Netherlands; M. General Social Sciences, BSc. Health Psychology; assistant professor, organisational consultant, program leader executive programme Coaching and Consulting in Context, Theory and practice of working with hidden dynamics in organisations at Utrecht University School of Governance, NL (professional partnership with Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, UK); associate consultant Tavistock Consulting, UK; member International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO).

Associate Admnistrator: Lili Valkoclinical psychologist, group analytic psychotherapist. Part of the therapeutic community Thalassa Ház in Budapest, Hungary since 2007 in different roles, currently case manager and deputy manager. Editor of the journal Pszichoterápia. Member of the staff of "Learning from Action" 2016, 2017.

Consultants:M. Fakhry Davids M.Sc., TQAPClinical Psychologist and Psychoanalyst in full time practice in London; Supervising and Training Analyst of the British Psychoanalytic Society and Fellow of the Institute of Psychoanalysis; Honorary Senior Lecturer, Psychoanalysis Unit, University College London; Visiting Fellow, Centre for Trauma & Refugees, University of Essex; Member of the Tavistock Society of Psychotherapists, and Founding Board Member of PCCA; UK.

Mira Erlich-GinorTraining and supervising analyst in the Israel Psychoanalytic Society. She is involved in psychoanalytic education for almost two decades, in her society, in EPF and IPA. She is a founding member and Past Chairperson OFEK, Israel. Mira has initiated and participated in the “Nazareth Project” working with transgenerational transmission of trauma in Israelis and Germans. Founding member/secretary PCCA. She is Co-author of Fed with Tears Poisoned with Milk. Mira is one of the Euro representatives to the IPA Board.

Marina Mojović MD, MAis a psychiatrist, psychoanalytic psychotherapist, group analyst, and organizational consultant, member of IAGP, GASI, ISPSO, OPUS, EFPP, educator in Serbian Society of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists. In GAS Belgrade she is a training group analyst, supervisor and Founder of its Psycho-Social Section & Training, bridging traditions of group analysis, group relations and therapeutic communities. Founder of ‘Serbian Reflective Citizens Program’ and Social Dreaming Training.

Joan Roma i Vergés M.A.Philosophy (University of Barcelona) and Social Psychology (U.B.), lives in Barcelona. Professional Development Programme (I.O.D., Belgium). With a background of management experience, as consultant and professor, he specializes in transitional processes of organisations and its members, around Europe, Latin America and Africa. Engaged in the study and transformation of societies with living historical grievances.

Dorothee C. von Tippelskirch-Eissing Dr. phil., Dipl. Psych.psychoanalyst in private practice, supervisor and training analyst; former chairperson of the Karl-Abraham-Institute, Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute (BPI) and board member of the German Psychoanalytic Association (DPV); member of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA); since 2015 chairperson of Partners in Confronting Collective Atrocities (PCCA), Berlin (Germany).